Georgia Dome’s Roof: Tired but True

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The Georgia Dome is covered by fabric sheets connected and supported by aluminum cables. Because the roof is over 20 years old, the costs for maintenance to the roof due to old age and withstanding Georgia’s sometimes turbulent weather, a new stadium will be built. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be covered by a similar roof except it will be retractable as to allow for hosting a wide array of events year-round.

Georgia Dome’s Sound System, A Costworthy Experience

This sound clip showcases the sound system used at the Georgia Dome. The Georgia Dome in 2010 replaced the sound system the building was originally equipped with in 1992. This portion of renovation cost over $3 million to complete. The $3 million covered installation costs, and the costs of the 100+ speakers and amplifiers which were put into place.

Creating Raving Fans: Georgia Dome’s Employees

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At the Georgia Dome the event staff are a hard working team of over 2,000, working to provide a great experience to the patrons. The employees work and take care of things such as crowd management, ticket taking, showing guests to their seats, event security, traffic control, and consulting. Employees are paid $7.50 an hour with no benefits and do not make enough to live off of the infrequent paychecks.

Taylor Swift Brings Down the Dome Without Bulldozers

IMG_1567Taylor Swift, known for her transition from country music’s princess to one of the most powerful females in pop music sold out the Georgia Dome for her Atlanta show during the North American Leg of tour. Over 56,000 tickets were sold to a diverse crowd of different ages and races. To create a floor to seat so many people the Dome covers the field with plastic tarp and then lay down over 6,000 ply wood sheets. The stage and seating are then placed above it.

From a Grassy Field to a Pit of Dirt: Monster Jam 2016 at the GA Dome

This picture was photographed at the Georgia Dome on March 5, 2016. The picture depicts what is known as the “Pit Party” where event goers at Monster Jam can go into the pit and view and interact with the Monster Trucks and drivers before the show. The photo was taken from the club level section of the IMG_1574Georgia Dome. This section is known for the “Club/Mezz Split” which splits patrons with club level tickets from patrons with Mezzanine seating. The Mezzanine patrons pay less than club ticket patrons who have access to eateries that the Mezzanine patrons cannot purchase from due to the fact that they cannot be let into the Verizon Wireless club. From the Verizon Wireless club, the executive suites can be accessed and patrons can also purchase exclusive food and souvenirs.

“Gentrification in America Report”

Maciag, Mike. “Gentrification in America Report.” Governing: The States and Localities. E.Republic, Feb. 2015. Web. 07 Mar. 2016. <http://www.governing.com/gov-data/gentrification-in-cities-governing-report.html>.

All across the United States, urban areas are experiencing an influx of well-off residents in areas which were previously underinvested. This influx is tagged with the name gentrification. Because of the affluent moving to the area, the housing process in the area begin to increase dramatically which displaces the residents. Statistics have shown that almost 20% of low income area in the the US have experienced gentrification. Cities that experienced gentrification in the most places were New York, NY, Philadelphia, PA, and Chicago, IL. The researches also found that neighborhoods that went through gentrification saw losses of the minority population and went through population increases while the opposite was seen in areas that failed to undergo it. Atlanta specifically has gentrified more than double of what it did from 1990-2000, going from 13 areas to 30. The city of Atlanta also noticed an increase of bachelor’s degrees held by adults in the areas increasing as gentrification. They also suffered a slight increase of poverty rates in the portions of the city that did not undergo gentrification. This article defines gentrification and gives specifics of where it has occurred around the nation.

“Georgia Senate Gives OK to Super Bowl Tax Breaks”

Salzer, James. “Key Georgia Senate Panel Gives OK to Super Bowl, Shopping Tax Breaks.” AJC. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2 Mar. 2016. Web. 6 Mar. 2016. <http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/key-georgia-senate-panel-gives-ok-to-super-bowl-sh/nqcNQ/>.

Because the Atlanta Falcons invested in building the new Mercedes-Benz stadium which cost over $1.5 billion, they put in a bid to the NFL to be considered to host the Superbowl. In efforts to further persuade the NFL, Governor Nathan Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta Sports Council proposed a bill to the Georgia Senate to have sales taxes on tickets to the big game waived. Tax breaks in the past have proven beneficial to our city as they have often created jobs and generated plenty of business for retail stores. The Georgia House and Senate assessed the pros and cons of offering tax breaks on super bowl tickets and found that it would cost the state and city $10 million but having the game in Atlanta would bring in over $400 million as estimated by economists. Because this bill is so broad it could also cover large sporting events such as Final Four games. This bill will possibly allow the city to have more economic growth and prowess through tax breaks on Superbowl tickets.

“Demolition of Georgia Dome Scheduled for 2017”

Tucker, Tim. “Demolition of Georgia Dome Scheduled for 2017.” AJC. The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 30 Jan. 2016. Web. 06 Mar. 2016. <http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/football/plans-in-works-to-decommission-the-dome/nqFFh/>.

Recently it was decided that the Mercedes-Benz Stadium will not be opened for business for an additional 3 months after the original date intended. Because it had been previously decided that the dome will close in March of 2017, local vendors and employees of the Dome are worried about not working for three months as the new stadium’s opening date is not June 2017. The construction company in charge of the Dome’s demolition stated that in order to have the significant amount of parking needed for the new stadium’s large attendance, they need to begin the implosion as soon as possible. The takedown of the dome is predicted to take from 6 to 7 months, which would not be in time for the 2017 NFL season. The parking decks would not be prepared in time due because of the time it takes to build such massive parking structures to hold such weights and the MARTA tracks that are so close. This opening date push back and not opening of the dome during the over lapped dates will mean that the Atlanta soccer team will not be playing in their new stadium or the Georgia dome for the first three months of their first ever season. Conclusively, there has been no revisiting of the demolition date of the Georgia Dome and it can potentially backfire locals and their sports teams.

“Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments

Because technology is evolving at such a fast pace and quickly becoming accepted as a formal writing space, training on writing for digital spaces is becoming a necessity. In her writing “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments: Mary Hocks explains the importance of teaching visual rhetoric to students, which is explained in three categories: transparency, audience stance, and hybridity.

Hybridity is explained as incorporating different forms of media into online writing to make reading the work more pleasurable and riveting. The combination of text and media can include visuals, videos, graphs, embedded web pages, interactive modules and even sounds. Including media compels readers to completely delve themselves into the reading which makes it easier to see the meaning and understand the author, not to mention also keeping the reader engaged.

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Social Media site Tumblr.com allows for users to post multi-modally.

Transparency is defined as “the ways in which online documents relate to established conventions like those of print, graphic design, film and Web pages” (632). She backs her support of transparency because it makes the reader feel more connected when the work calls upon other sources stating the same thing. When others are saying the same as you and you cite them it makes your work visibly more credible.

Audience Stance is described by Hocks as the level of interactions received from the audience, what emotions the work brings about, and if it possibly discourages them from reacting certain ways. Each work created, if done properly can subtly bring about feelings in readers or construct mindsets. Hock uses evidence from other studies which prove that the interface and multi-modality of a work can compel readers to challenge themselves.

The study of audience stance also looks at how to keep different people engaged no matter the background. Hock gives us a look inside a study done where a group of students were asked to create a website answering a question. The students made the site intricately which allowed for students and adults alike were completely intrigued and engaged. They did this by including an interactive forum to engage students, and Shakespearean sources to engage the adult readers.

Including media in the digital writings enhanced students’ enhanced the students’ thinking because they had to carefully map out how things would flow in the work and present the visual information in a way that would engage the audience. Creating multimodal works also is beneficial to students because it is challenging yet it “leads students to a new understanding of how designed spaces and artifacts impact audiences”.

Mary Hock’s call for students to be taught how to incorporate various forms of media  into their digital works as it benefits the engagement levels of the reader.

Hocks, Mary E. “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments.” College Composition and Communication 2003: 629. JSTOR Journals. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.

“Better Online Living Through Content Moderation”

Content control options available on social media titan Twitter.com

In the article “Better Online Living through Content Moderation” Melissa King shows readers content control tools that are available to protect from online abuse and explains why they are necessary in the digital age. King also addresses opposers of content control tools by stating that “nobody should be required to read or listen to content if they do not want to” (1). She backs this stating that sites that do not offer content control make for bad environments which could have psychological and sociological backlashes.

Some of the content control tools that are widely available on most sites include content warnings, privacy options, blocking restrictions, mutes and reporting. Melissa King argues that these content control features are beneficial to the general public because they allow users to protect themselves from crude or triggering topics as online aggressors can possibly invoke anxiety attacks or spark Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. King calls for television to become the next media outlet to present content control options. Television’s massive commercial and advertisements industry puts many viewers to new levels of uncontrolled exposures. After experiencing subliminal messages users may suffer from spending frenzies, breakdowns and anxiety attacks.

Cable companies only offer basic content control such as rating locks, which allow parents to lock shows with certain age ratings to prevent children from exposure to adult material at such young ages. Because these parental locks do not offer controls to the subliminal anxiety sparks, therapy is provided to help consumers cope. Just as television is television offers low amounts of content control, the internet also has become a marketing guru as advertisements heavily douse the digital world. Ad blockers and pop-up blockers offer good controls to the many advertisements but some sites have begun not allowing users access to their sites without dialing any adblockers.

Alongside her arguments for content control, the author shows viewpoints of why content control isn’t beneficial and refutes them with adequate reasoning. One reason people believe content control is not beneficial is because people  mostly interpret the “abuse and harassment” they receive at another level than what it is really meant to be. Sometimes the supposed abuse and harassment isn’t even online bullying but just merely debates. Those who discredit content control also call upon Exposure Theory which proposes that the more you’re gradually exposed to something that builds severe anxiety the less it will be a trigger to you. Melissa King fires back with the fact that online harassment is at random and the lack of controlled exposure by trained professionals the trauma caused will most likely increase and be more significant.

 

“Better Online Living through Content Moderation by Melissa King | Model View Culture.” N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.